Pick a promise
by gibergabber
Summary: Inuyasha had died in the final battle with Naraku, but he has the option to live again! All he has to do is choose a promise; live for Kagome, or die with Kikyo? Okay, so not my usual lighthearted humour story, but I promise that this isn't anywhere near what I thought the final result would be.


Death had a certain way of sneaking up on you, Inuyasha decided. It had been rather sudden, one minute he was fighting Naraku, and the next, his gut was slashed through and his arm was hanging on by hope alone. But death was also strange. Wasn't one supposed to see a big white light or even, heaven forbid, eternal darkness, when one was dead? Wasn't it supposed to be the end, where nothing else mattered?

So why, he found himself wondering, could he still see everything that was going on? Was it possible that he wasn't in fact dead, that he was just badly wounded? No, but that _wasn't_ possible; he didn't feel the pain from his severe injuries. His sensitive ears couldn't hear the noises that he knew should be present. He could just see. But he wondered why.

Perhaps it was the something that seemed to be at the back of his mind, a voice, a name, a face, that wanted to break free, something important that he should be remembering.

Dismissing this anomaly for a time, Inuyasha focused on the scene before him. Almost all Naraku's demons were dead, their bodies scattered about. Miroku, Sango and the others were nowhere to be seen, but they were most likely still outside fighting. After all, only he and Kagome had made it as far as the throne room.

And that something that had been at the back of his mind broke free- Kagome was still alive! She was still fighting! Ah yes, that was it.

Kagome stood over him, her knees bent and her bow drawn before her. All in all, her pose absolutely screamed protection, but of what? Oh, that's right, Inuyasha and his dead body. Sound seemed to return to him in rush as he realized that she was speaking.

"Surrender to me now or I swear on this man's body, that I won't stop fighting until both of us are dead. Give up, or I won't ever stop, even if I die first."

It must have been something in her eyes, combined with maybe her posture and definitely her tone of voice, which caused Naraku to chuckle.

"You've got to be joking, you bitch." He said in a tone that Inuyasha would almost call teasing, had anyone else used it.

"Just you dare and try me." Kagome pulled her bowstring to its max and lined up for the shot. Inuyasha could hear the desperation in her voice, and tried to move to comfort her. Because unlike him, who went wild when Kagome was hurt, she lost hope when he was even mildly cut. Something that Inuyasha found both adorable and mind-numbingly annoying.

"You stupid Miko, there's no way that you, nor anyone, could ever kill me!" And now his tone was haughty. Inuyasha found himself imagining the smirk that went along with such a tone and inwardly winced.

"You bastard. I'll fucking waste you," Was the last thing that Kagome said before releasing her arrow, right into Naraku's arrogant smile. This, coincidentally, was also the last thing that Inuyasha heard before his darkness folded around him.

Ah, yes. _This_ most certainly was what death was meant to feel like. It was everything that he'd imagined it would be. He was now floating above his body, surveying from above. Somehow, he couldn't figure out why though, the scene didn't seem quite right.

Had he really been in such a green meadow? Why couldn't he remember it if he had? Were there really flowers such as those that he could see? And hadn't he been slashed nearly in half? So why, he wondered, was his body lying peacefully in the grass, his eyes closed and his arms, he was sure he'd lost one, were folded neatly over his chest? And if his body was down there, what was he? Was he maybe a spirit?

And why, instead of floating away from the surreal looking meadow, was he instead falling quickly towards it and his body? Death, he decided, was indeed a mystery. As his body came nearer and nearer, he braced for impact. Impact though, never came, surprising him greatly. Instead, he fell directly onto his body, and it was a perfect fit, like the smooth pattern his hand had worn into Tetsuaiga's handle.

It was a second or two, in which it was almost as though his body was restarting itself, before he could open his eyes to look around the meadow. Only, the meadow wasn't what he thought. It was almost as though the meadow had been superimposed onto another room.

The other room he could see both clearly and not, as though if he tried to concentrate on a specific spot, it was blurry. He looked at it sneakily, deciding that maybe if he wasn't too obvious, he could catch the other room off guard and it would appear more clearly too him, but to his frustration, the room held strong.

From what he could tell from the room, it was large and stone, maybe a cave or a castle. Bloodstains and bodies were everywhere, and there seemed to be people standing over him, but alas, they were just the same as the room. He swore that he could recognize them, but for some reason, his mind drew a blank as to who the twos girls and the boy were.

"Inuyasha" A voice drew his attention from the other room and back to the meadow. There, standing in front of two trees, were two women.

One of the women was dressed in a red and white kimono, a Miko, he realized. Her long black hair was tied and her eyes were steely blue and guarded. The other woman was wearing some kind of uniform, a short green skirt, and a white shirt with a matching green collar. Her icy blue eyes were somehow warm, and her black hair fell playfully about her shoulders.

What struck him the most about these two women was how similar they looked. They could have been sisters, even twins, he decided. They looked similar, but oh, so different. The Miko woman gave off a stately, respectful, almost stiff air, while the woman in the uniform seemed kind, and gentle, and playful. Somehow, Inuyasha knew that he should know these women.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"You know who we are, and Inuyasha, you must make a choice." The Miko stated, her voice as rigid as she seemed.

"Behind us are two doors. Both of the represent a promise that you made to us in life." The other girl added.

"But… what the fuck are you bitches going on about?" Inuyasha didn't really need to curse, but for some reason it made him feel better.

"To one of us, you made a promise to die, to accompany her to hell. To the other, you made a promise to live, so that she could always remain by your side." The uniformed girl told him.

"You can only keep one of those promises to keep." The Miko finished.

"And how the fuck am I supposed to choose if I don't know who the hell you both are? How do I know who I made a promise to and which one to keep?"

"That, Inuyasha, is up to you. Choose one and you die, choose another and you live."

"It is not, however a question of do you want to live or do you want to remain dead. It is a question of do you choose me?"

"Or, do you choose me?"

"You may have time to decide. Go and lie in the grass."

Inuyasha, more confused than not, complied with the Miko's command, and laid down quite close to where he had started, if not in the same spot. Again, the other room swam around him, and he realized that while he'd been talking to the women, he hadn't seen it.

The people were still near him; even a few more had joined. A boy in a monk's robes was holding a sobbing girl in a demon slayer's uniform. Another, a man dressed in fur was shouting at him with tears in his eyes and a look of outright anger on his face. A tall man with white hair had his hand on a young girl's head, with said young girl's face buried into his side. A young fox demon seemed to be in shock. But what were they crying over?

And there was someone on his chest, sobbing furiously. He could almost feel her, more of a phantom touch than anything. He could feel the tears soaking into his gi, but at the same time he couldn't. With a jolt, he realized the her outfit was the same at the uniformed girl in the meadow. A name came to him.

"Kagome."

"Inuyasha, Oh, Inuyasha!" He heard. It was her voice, Kagome's voice, sobbing his name, over and over.

"Kagome?" He wondered why his voice didn't make any noise.

"You idiot!" Kagome began pounding his chest weakly.

"Kagome!" He tried again.

"Inuyasha, you idiot, don't you dare leave me!"

"KAGOME!" Inuyasha shouted, and somehow, he knew that he'd made his choice. Kagome.

It was no longer than a split second, but everything seemed to happen at once. The meadow with the two women faded, and the other room came into sharp focus. The mute was turned off, and he was treated to the sounds of everyone around him crying and shouting. And he could feel as well.

At first it was only a little bit, as though his body needed time to adjust to being alive. He felt the stone floor beneath his back, quite uncomfortable in his opinion. And he felt the soft weight of someone on top of him, their body shaking and their tears soaking through his gi.

"Inuyasha, you can't leave me! Inuyasha, please, don't leave! Don't leave me! Inuyasha!" Inuyasha tried to open his eyes, to look at the sobbing girl on his chest, but it seemed that maybe his body needed more time to revive. He tried speaking instead,

"K-Kago-gom-me" Inuyasha ground out. Good heavens! Was that his voice, so rough and scratchy? He felt the girl tense, and he heard a sharp intake of breath from all those around him.

"I-Inuyasha?!" Kagome asked, hope plain in her voice. Inuyasha tried to open his eyes again, this time succeeding, if not a bit blurrily, and saw that she'd pulled back a bit to look at face. He managed to command his face muscles to go into a ghost of his trademark scowl.

"Keh, as if something this minor'd finish me off." His voice was stronger this time, and despite the pain, he even managed to put a hint of arrogance into his tone. Kagome stared at him in wonder.

"You stupid motherfucker! If you were fine this whole time, why the fuck were you letting cry over you?" Koga, the first among the friends to recover, began a long winded rant.

Sango continued to sob, though Miroku assured everyone that he believed they were now relieved tears, tears of joy. Rin was peering at him from behind Sesshomaru's leg, and the demon himself was watching his brother with nothing less than fondness. Shippo began a victory dance along with a tiny Kirara.

However, neither Inuyasha, nor Kagome, noticed any of it. They were too busy staring at each other, Kagome with disbelief in her eyes.

"Are you really okay now? This isn't a hallucination?" She asked, her tone and eyes desperate.

"Yeah"

"Oh, Inuyasha!" And that was all the warning he got before Kagome dove on him again, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. Ah yes, he knew that there had been something missing. The pain that came from having an arm chopped off and being nearly slashed in half. With his currently working arm, he pushed her back.

"Jesus fucking Christ Kagome! You're going to kill me again at this rate!"

"Hang on, again?!"


End file.
